Comment by astrobiased

7 days ago

The post hits it spot on with unequal access to the models in terms of security. I'm developing OSS where security is important for the user ... but the frontier models like GPT 5.6 and Fable flake out and state that I cannot get the info/access.

This is extremely lopsided I'll have to resort to GLM 5.2/K3 to ensure that those security issues (hopefully) are resolved properly.

For OSS, this is one of the most counterintuitive experiences I have ever had. More than ever I'm convinced that open weight and open pipelines models are 100% critical for progress on the AI and societal fronts.

Part of me wonders if the US Government is muzzling Anthropic and OpenAI so they can stockpile NOBUS exploits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOBUS

There would be a decently large incentive to restrict these models if they could be used to patch (or discover) dangerous payloads. In larger projects like Windows or Chrome, there might still be dozens of unpatched exploits that are too subtle to catch with smaller models.

  • Hanlon's razor. It's not the NSA muzzling anyone, it's lawyers terrified of a bad headline. Same outcome, much dumber reason.

  • NOBUS exploits have rarely been a driving interest for elected officials. Trade restrictions and reciprocity are far more salient and legible. Most elected officials are only barely aware of what NOBUS exploits even mean.

    Even during the pre-Snowden heyday of US cyber supremacy, these capabilities were barely part of the thought process of White House officials.

    • Conversely, the United States is now embroiled deeper in asymmetric warfare than ever before. US-based systems are being exploited by Chinese efforts like Salt Typhoon and raising questions about reciprocal attacks. Other targets of US soft-power like Iran (Stuxnet victim) are escalating their hacking efforts and using Chinese technology to stifle American command and control.

      I can believe that NOBUS and other backdoors were ignored for a long time, but I have a hard time believing that it's being ignored by the current administration.

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Yeah, the benefit of restricting us models is definitely outweighed by the positive effect these models could have for the OSS community!